SHORT TAKES

One of the owners of farmland that residents voted to preserve in 2006 told the Carlsbad City Council last night that it faces a difficult challenge.

The council discussed the results of an eight-month series of public workshops that addressed how to enact Proposition D, which aims to preserve 300 acres of agriculture along Cannon Road as long as economically possible.

After that, the land would become open space.

Chris Calkins, president of the Carltas Co., which owns about 100 acres near Cannon Road, including the 53-acre Flower Fields, said the proposition and recommendations will require a new attitude on the part of the city.

Calkins said the proposition creates a “tension” because the community is deciding the future of private land that owners are expected to preserve.

Carltas is the development arm of the flower-growing Ecke family.

The council voted to direct city staff members to draft zoning regulations that conform with the proposition and recommendations, and to work with the landowners.

Other property affected by the proposition includes San Diego Gas & Electric Co.'s 172 acres, much of which is cultivated as strawberry fields, and 26 acres owned by the Charles Co. at Cannon and Legoland Drive. –M.B.
3.2-magnitude temblor
reported near Borrego

EAST COUNTY: The U.S. Geological Survey reported a 3.2-magnitude earthquake at 7:37 p.m. yesterday eight miles north of Borrego Springs. No damage has been reported, the San Diego County Sheriff's Department said.

Tony Cecena, a front-desk clerk at the Borrego Springs Resort and Country Club, said last night that he did not feel the quake.

“I've been here for several hours and haven't felt any shaking,” Cecena said. –G.G.
Council votes to add land
to redevelopment area

VISTA: The City Council voted last night 3-0 to add more than 1,700 acres to the Vista redevelopment area in a move that could bring sorely needed infrastructure upgrades to the city.

During a public hearing before the vote, the overwhelming majority of speakers supported the addition.

“We need sidewalks and gutters and streetlights,” said Jamie Tomei, who described how she and her children dodge traffic along streets without any of those amenities.

City planners said the areas included in the redevelopment area are much more likely to get those upgrades than areas not included.

This is the first time the city has added land to the redevelopment area since about 2,100 areas were included in the original redevelopment area in the mid-1990s.

Councilmen Bob Campbell and Frank Lopez Jr. recused themselves because of business interests in the area.

“It's been an historical night in Vista,” Mayor Morris Vance said after the vote. –R.R.
Winter shelter for adults,
families OK'd by council

SAN DIEGO: The city's annual winter shelter for homeless adults and families was unanimously approved yesterday by the City Council at a cost of $680,000 for four months.

The shelter is slated to operate from Dec. 3 through April 1, but the Alpha Project, which is contracting with the city to operate a shelter for more than 200 single adults in the East Village, would like to open in early November. The group would not charge the city for the additional days of operation.

The shelter will operate in a tent on a vacant lot bounded by Island Avenue, 16th Street, J Street and 15th Street. The Centre City Development Corp. board is scheduled to vote Oct. 7 to spend $200,000 in Redevelopment Agency money to grade and pave the north end of the lot, where the tent would be erected.

A shelter for 150 homeless male veterans will be located in a tent in the Midway District and will be operated by the Veterans Village of San Diego.

Homeless families will be offered housing assistance through a collaboration of the city, the county, the YWCA and the San Diego Rescue Mission. Families would initially qualify for hotel-motel vouchers for up to 30 days as an entry point that city officials hope will lead to permanent housing. –R.W.P.
Public Defender's Office
chief to retire next year

SAN DIEGO COURTS: The head of the county Public Defender's Office will retire early next year after a dozen years at the helm of the agency.

Steve Carroll notified staff members and supervisors in his office of his decision Monday. Carroll, 63, said he will leave the county agency in March.

Carroll said he plans to do volunteer work for a nonprofit group working to set up law firms to defend the indigent in other countries. He also will pursue other interests.

“I've done this about 12 years, and now is my chance to do some other things,” Carroll said.

Carroll was named the public defender for the county in 1996 when he replaced former Public Defender Frank Bardsley, who was the first head of the office when it was formed in 1988.

Lawyers for the office defend people who cannot afford to hire a private lawyer when they are charged with crimes.

The 205 lawyers represent defendants in about 14,000 felony cases and 54,000 less-serious misdemeanor and probation revocation cases each year. The office has a budget of $67 million and a nonlawyer staff of 340.

Carroll previously was head of the Alternate Public Defender's Office, a similar but smaller indigent-defense office that represents clients that the public defender cannot because of legal conflicts or other reasons. –G.M.
Navy hospital ship Mercy
set to return tomorrow

SAN DIEGO: The hospital ship Mercy will return to San Diego about 9 a.m. tomorrow after completing its third extended humanitarian mission to the western Pacific Ocean in four years, Navy officials announced Monday.

The ship's military and civilian medical staff treated more than 90,000 patients during a five-month voyage that included stops in the Philippines, Vietnam, Micronesia, East Timor and Papua New Guinea. The medical personnel came from 15 Pacific Rim nations, as well as the Aloha Medical Mission, Project Hope, Operation Smile and the University of California San Diego's Pre-Dental Society. –S.L.
Jewish veterans to host
open house for exhibit

BALBOA PARK: Post 185 of the group Jewish War Veterans will help host an open house Sunday in honor of the “Hall of Heroes” exhibit at the Veterans Museum and Memorial Center in Balboa Park.

The display is meant to pay tribute to Jews who received the Medal of Honor, the nation's highest distinction for combat valor. The featured guest will be Tybor Rubin, one of those recipients and a Holocaust survivor.

Admission to the event is free, but a $3 donation is encouraged. The museum is at 2115 Park Blvd. –H.T.P.